


Apples

by ChristmasRivers



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canon Era, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-03
Updated: 2016-04-03
Packaged: 2018-05-30 22:04:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6443644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChristmasRivers/pseuds/ChristmasRivers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eren's birthday passed almost unnoticed, overshadowed by the breach at Trost and all that followed, leaving his friends at a loss for how to celebrate a day Eren didn't even seem to care about anymore.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Apples

Apples.

It had been a long time since Eren had seen them, probably since back before the fall of Wall Maria, but passing through the Trost Market the day after graduation he saw some. A motley-looking bushel of reds and a bruised handful of the sour green that he liked, but apples all the same. He pointed them out to Armin and Mikasa as they passed. The three of them laughed at the exorbitant price chalked on the slate tab beside the fruit, but he missed the significant look Mikasa and Armin shot each other.

Eren’s birthday had passed a few days prior, while they had been stressing over their final evaluations before graduating from Trainee Corps. Eren had ignored his birthday except for a few nodded thanks to a handful of well wishes, and he hadn’t allowed Mikasa or Armin to make a fuss over it. _“We need to focus on the assessments first.”_ And they agreed, but they had still wanted to do _something_ for the occasion.

They remembered how much Eren used to love apples. Most of the apple orchards within the walls–at least the ones that weren’t inside nobles’ gardens–had been located in the Maria section, a number of them fairly close to Shiganshina.

Before the Fall, they used to go through the gate to visit the community orchards frequently. They would haul back as many apples as they could carry. Eren’s mother would make pie, and Armin’s grandfather would occasionally make cider. But they both remembered that Eren had liked the apples fresh off the trees more than anything else.

He had loved climbing the trees to get them and then sitting in the branches with Mikasa and Armin—if they could convince the timid boy to climb—to eat them right on the spot, enjoying the breeze from their perch and daydreaming of going even higher, out and over the walls. Days of sunshine, sweetness and laughing at Eren when he fell out of trees and Armin would argue that that was why he never wanted to climb them in the first place, all wrapped up into the sight and taste of apples. They remembered those days, the apples, even if Eren didn’t.

Apples had been hard to come by after the Fall and they were too expensive for trainees like them to expect to receive any in their military rations or for them to be able to buy with their limited stipends. They hadn’t even _seen_ an apple since long before they had joined the military. Most of the apples, they knew, went to the interior. To wealthy buyers in the cities in and around Wall Sina.

So when Armin and Mikasa saw the apples that Eren so quickly passed by that day, there wasn’t really any need for discussion: they would find a way to get him some of those apples, even if they had to pool together money from their entire class to make it happen.

Or...at least that had been the plan. But even after the citizens had fled their homes and businesses after Titans breached the gate only a few hours later, neither of them could have spared the time or the thought to pick up some of those now unguarded apples. Without a doubt, they had _bigger_ problems to worry about.

 ---

“It's…uhh...been awhile since we’ve seen any good apples,” Eren blurted out. He thought that since Captain Levi had wanted to fill the tense silence between them while they had waited on the Commander’s arrival earlier that day, that maybe he would appreciate Eren starting a conversation now that it was just them sitting over after-dinner tea. Everyone else had already gone to bed for the night, but neither of them seemed to be in any hurry to go lay in bed for what would surely be another sleepless night.

Instead Levi stared at him as if he had suddenly lost his mind. He ducked his head and then choked on the sip of tea he took to hide the flush on his face.

A minute or so passed after Eren finished clearing his throat before Levi responded.

“Yeah.”

Uncertain whether that was a sign to continue or not Eren glanced up and tentatively added, “Apples used to…I used to really like apples.”

Levi nodded. “I can’t say I’ve ever had the chance to try any.”

That was true. Levi had grown up in the Underground. They may have had apples in the interior, but it wasn’t likely many of them made it to the Underground.

Eren nodded and took that to be the end of their conversation. By the next day apples, awkward conversations and fallen comrades were distant thoughts; dealing with the Female titan once more took a _large_ chunk of their concentration and the events immediately following left them little time to think of anything but titans.

\---

“Armin.”

Armin snapped his head around at the sound of his name, then snapped into a salute just as fast when he saw it was Captain Levi, his new squad leader, who had called.

“Yes, sir?”

Levi was carrying a bundle of papers, personnel files it looked like, and he rifled through the pages before answering.

“I’m looking for Eren. Have you seen him?”

“Ah! He went down to the clearing with Section Leader Hanji, and some of the others. They wanted to walk through the hardening and cognitive tests they plan to run the day after next.”

Levi nodded and continued rifling until he found page he needed. He walked over to the nearest desk and pulled a pencil from his pocket. “Well, you might be able to answer my question just as well him…"Armin waited.

"Do you know Eren’s date of birth?”

Armin raised an eyebrow. Levi glanced up and caught his expression.

“Some of the records came through before we cut ourselves off from from Trost Command, but most didn’t. I’m not sure rebuilding these will mean much in the future, but those were Erwin’s orders.”

Armin nodded. “His birthday is the thirtieth of March, and he was born in 835.” Levi marked a note on the page then paused.

“Eren’s birthday passed just before the attack on Trost.”

“Yes. It fell right in the middle of our final exams.” Armin glanced to one side. “And then things happened so quickly after graduation that we never had a chance to do anything for it.”

Levi nodded and returned the page to the stack in his hands. He asked Armin few more questions about his fellow squadmates from the 104th–a few Armin could answer, most of which he could not–but Armin’s thoughts were only half focused on the questioning.

 Just as they were finishing up he muttered to himself, “We wanted to get him those apples…”

Levi hesitated over the note he was adding, then said in a low voice, “He used to really like apples, right?”

Armin looked up in surprise. “Y-yeah. As far as I know, he still does. How did you know?”

“He mentioned it once a while back.”

They stared at each other a moment more before Armin nodded and Levi looked away. Levi dismissed him and Armin let him know that he was heading out to meet Eren, Hanji and their scouting party. They didn’t speak of the apples or Eren’s birthday again before he left, but there was something hanging in the air between them after that conversation. Something neither Levi nor Armin really knew how to address, but remained there regardless.

In the coming weeks, that something fell to the wayside as their thoughts were _captivated_ by the more immediate concerns of Eren and Historia’s kidnapping and it was a while longer yet before either had the freedom to consider it again.

\---

“Eren? Could you come here for a second?”

Eren turned his head toward the sound of Historia calling from somewhere down the hall of their makeshift orphanage for the Underground children. It sounded like she was in the room they had set up to be the dining room for the home.

For the time being he and Levi Squad were staying with Historia in her orphanage, helping out here and there as they could in between training for the next stage in their plans to retake Shiganshina. It would be supper time soon, so Eren supposed Historia might want a hand setting the tables before the meal.

He rolled his shoulders to shrug off some of the weariness that training in his titan form seemed to have settled into his very bones. “I’ll be right there,” he called back.

But when he walked through the doorway a couple seconds later, all of the places were already set and most of their squad sat around one of the tables darting glances between him and the few people standing between him and the cramped dining space.

“What is this about? Are we having another meeting?”

“Yes and no,” Levi answered, pulling something up from the bench beside him, a burlap sack like the ones potatoes came in sometimes. He handed it Armin, who stood waiting with Mikasa. They both looked at him with excited, expectant expressions, which only left him feeling even more confused.

“We _do_ need to have a meeting later,” Levi added. “But that can wait until after dinner. As for right now, Armin and Mikasa have something they want to give you.”

Eren was too tired to even try to guess what this was about so he simply turned to Armin and cocked a brow. Armin smiled in return and proffered the burlap sack while Mikasa smiled her own small smile and nodded for him to open it. He did but he wasn’t sure what to make of what he found inside.

“...Apples? Uhhh…why?”

“Well...” Armin began, “Mikasa and I remembered that you use to love apples and you’ve been commenting for months how hard they are to find and how expensive they are. You even mentioned it to Captain Levi once, remember?”

Eren vaguely remembered mentioning something to Levi what felt like years ago, rather than the two or so months that had actually passed, but by the way Levi nodded along with Armin’s words he clearly remembered the conversation even better than Eren did himself. Eren’s attention was drawn back to Armin as he continued speaking.

“We had been meaning to do something for your birthday ever since graduation, but with everything that’s happened since Trost…”

There was no need for Armin to even finish that sentence. With everything that they had had going on–from the breach at Trost, to the encounters with the Female Titan, to the most recent fiasco with Rod Reiss and his MPs–his birthday was the last thing that needed to be on anybody’s mind. Hell, he wasn’t even sure if there was much of a point looking forward to his next one; he wasn’t even sure he’d live long enough to see it with the way things were going… The sound of Armin’s voice snapped Eren out of his darkening thoughts.

“I you weren’t really thinking much about your birthday and it’s a little late for us to be getting you anything, but Levi happened to find these while he was in the interior meeting with military leaders. He thought of you, bought them, and then we all chipped in,” nodding to their other squadmates, “to pay him back afterwards.”

"So…Happy Birthday, Eren,” he finished with a laugh and a shrug. Eren’s face must have reflected how puzzled and lost he still felt because a couple of moments later Mikasa stepped up beside him. She took the bag from his hands, removed an apple–one of the green ones he liked the most–and set it in his still outstretched hands.

“Go ahead. They’re for you.”

He looked towards the rest of their squad and each person in turn gave a nod or a smile or a beaming grin in encouragement.

“I…”

“Eren.” He turned his head to look at Historia where she was smiling warmly and genuinely from across the room. “Mikasa and Armin said you prefer to eat the apples raw, but we wanted to give you those now just in case you wanted them prepared in some way for dinner or afterwards.” She paused, then made her way towards the doorway until she was looking right up into his face. “How would you like to eat them? If you’d like we can wait until tomorrow if you’d like a little longer to decide.”

He stared blankly at the apple in his hand, then over at the sack of them in Mikasa’s arms, until Mikasa’s concerned voice broke through the haze.

“Eren?”

“N-no,” he jumped in quickly. He nodded to Mikasa, then turned to address the whole room. “We can eat them tonight. I think I’ll eat mine fresh but, if anyone else wants theirs baked or something, then I won’t blame them.”

Armin frowned. "Eren...” he began, before Jean cut him off.

“We bought those for you, idiot. You don’t need to share them with anyone if you don’t want to. They’re _your_ gift.”

“Well, I mean if you want to share them…” Sasha added hopefully until Connie elbowed her in the ribs.

“Jean is right,” Armin cut in again. “Those are your gift. We didn’t mean for you to share them.”

Eren shook his head. “I really appreciate that, but how am I going to eat even half of these older apples before they go bad? I don’t mind; I don’t think any of us have had an apple in a while, or had a proper birthday gift at that, right?”

Armin looked uncertain, but nodded. Mikasa looked as if she wanted to argue further, but Eren didn’t give her a chance. He grabbed the bag from her arms, took it over to the table, and carefully overturned it so that the apples rolled out gently onto the surface.

“Everyone take your pick. I’ll keep whatever we don’t eat tonight, but don’t let that hold anyone back. I don’t think I could eat this many apples before they all go sour if I tried.”

Nobody moved. Eren looked around expectantly, but it wasn’t until Levi crossed his arms and nodded that anyone dared twitch. He made his way over to the table and looked over the assortment of apples strewn across it.

“You said you’d never had one before, sir, right?” Eren asked him with a grin. Levi shook his head.

“You like the green ones, right?” Levi asked quietly. “You’d recommend those for a ‘beginner’?”

“Definitely! They’re tangy _and_ sweet; most are just sweet. Just watch out; you might get a really sour one. Those are kind of difficult to handle if you’re not used to the taste.”

Levi’s casual questions and easy selection of his apple set everyone else into motion, Sasha nearly diving over the table to grab two reds and three yellow before Jean slapped two of the yellow and a red out of her hands. Each of them picked at least one apple, Mikasa hovering behind Eren, quietly refusing, until he turned with a red one–her favorite–and put it right into her hands, just like she had done for him five minutes prior.

Several of them handed their apples over to Jean and Historia to have them cored and baked. No one trusted Sasha’s self-control well enough to ask her to work her magic on theirs, even though she set to work immediately to fix up her own, one apple in her mouth while she filled the other one with what spices they had. The smell of hers baking made everyone’s mouth water to the point they almost regretted not handing theirs over.

But in the end there was a good handful of apples leftover for Eren to munch on over the next couple of days, and soon after that they all settled down to dinner smiling in expectation of their rare treats.

Once the children of the orphanage had been fed and settled down into their nightly routine, the squad drifted back into the dining room for their meeting. They brewed some tea and Jean brought out the baked apples. Eren settled down in his spot, staring at green apple from earlier as he held it in both hands. He didn’t make any moves to eat it.

“Eren?”

He glanced over at Mikasa as she settled in beside him. “It’s nothing.” He turned the fruit over in his hands. “I’m just still having trouble believing you guys managed to find apples after everything that’s happened. And that you guys really went out of your way to buy them.”

“Well, you can thank Captain Levi for that,” Armin commented as he sat down on Eren’s other side. “He knew that Mikasa and I wanted to get you apples at some point, but it was him that spotted them and him that took the initiative to buy them. We didn’t even find out until later.”

Eren shook his head. To think that Levi would go to such lengths for someone like him. That he had even cared enough back then to listen when Eren had mentioned he liked them just to strike up a conversation.

He had underestimated how much Levi cared for his squad more than once, but he was astounded all over again at this gesture. Their squad leader was a difficult man to read most of the time, but he was glad they got these chances to see a different side of him. It made Eren proud all over again to be assigned to Levi’s squad, no matter how the circumstances of his titan-shifting might have forced Levi into taking him on. Gestures like this proved to him that Levi appreciated him as more than just an asset to the Survey Corps, but as a person too. He wasn’t sure how to express how much that meant to him.

So instead he took a bite of the apple. The crunch and the taste and the freshness hit him so strongly it felt as if he had never tasted an apple before in his life and now he was falling in love with them all over again. It was tangy and crisp, with just the perfect amount of sweetness. The taste brought back memories of sunlight and laughter and happier days. It could have been bittersweet recollection, but in light of what these particular apples represented–a gift from his best friends who were more like family, a gift from his squad who were more like best friends, and a gift from his superior who was more like a mentor–there was no bitterness to be found. Not in the nostalgia and not in the apple itself.

Eren was hesitant to admit it, but this was one of the best gifts he has ever received, and maybe deep down he had really needed this. He had needed this reminder that his friends cared, that his squad cared, that Levi cared. And in that moment, he needed this reminder to care for himself, too.

He was broken out of his thoughts by Levi clearing his throat so that the rest of the squad would settle into their seats. Before Levi could start in on the news from the interior, however, Sasha burst out a loud voice, “Eren, I just wanted to say thanks for letting us have some of your apples! I wasn’t sure I was ever going to taste an apple again! That was amazing!”

There were murmurs of agreement from others; Armin smiled and nodded, Mikasa intoned a very serious “Thank you, Eren”, while Levi added that it had certainly been an interesting experience for him and that he hoped it would be as pleasant going out as it had been going in.

Eren nodded his acknowledgement, then replied in a quiet voice, “And thanks, you guys.” The room fell completely silent. “Thanks for remembering that I like apples.”

He smiled.

“And thank you for remembering me.”

**Author's Note:**

> I fully intended to post this on 30 March, but I happened to get sick the same day. I finished the text...but didn't make it through the edits. So here it is now, just a little bit late. Happy Birthday, Eren!
> 
> Also, I’m not a big fan of baked apples myself, but here is a [cool recipe](http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/baked_apples/) I found while doing research on ways to prepare apples. This one looks and sounds so good I might actually try it sometime ^_^
> 
> My writing tumblr is [verbostrocity](http://verbostrocity.tumblr.com/). Read, reblog and like this oneshot on tumblr [here](http://verbostrocity.tumblr.com/post/142157381230/apples). Visit my writing blog for more of my writing, previews and updates ;)


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